poetically

From Middle English poetikly, poetycally, poyetikly; equivalent to poetical +‎ -ly.

poetically (comparative more poetically, superlative most poetically)

1. In a poetic manner.
   • 1875, George Macdonald, chapter 18, in Malcolm‎^[1], volume I, London: Henry S. King, pages 219–220:

     One who had caught a glimpse of the shining yet solemn eyes of the youth, as he walked home, would wonder no longer that he should talk as he did—so sedately, yet so poetically—so long-windedly, if you like, yet so sensibly—even wisely.

   • 1943 September and October, T. Lovatt Williams, “Some Reminiscences of the Footplate—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 271:

     I found out from his mate that he was a Longfellow fan, and the fireman complained bitterly that, not being poetically inclined himself, he often wished that Alfred would put a sock in it."

   • 1954, W. K. Wimsatt, The Verbal Icon‎^[2], University Press of Kentucky, page xiii:

     The bungled phrase, the slipshod paragraph, the inept metaphor, the irrelevant excursion, the disproportionate development, the feeble conclusion, are indeed all failures of meaning, and the more poetically ambitious the verbal structure in which they occur, the deeper and more substantive the failure may be.

   • 1983, Ken Norris, Whirlwinds, section 27:

     I want to cry for a life unlived, floating beautifully, poetically, all these years just out of reach.